Hunch. Two former England footballers, David Beckham and Gareth Southgate, were knighted in 2025, so the honours committee gave football its top honour only last year.
The knighthood market resolves on the New Year Honours List 2027 published by the Cabinet Office on GOV.UK: YES if Harry Kane is not listed as a Knight Bachelor or a knight of any other order, NO if he is. If the list is not out by 31 December 2026, it resolves on the day it is published, with The Guardian and BBC News as backups.
We looked for cases where a British sports star who was still competing won the top prize of their sport for the first time, and already had a lower honour such as an MBE. We then checked the next main honours list. We found five such wins from 2012 to 2024. Two of them, David Weir and Jessica Ennis, came in the same list of December 2012.